Astonishingly poetic and assiduously researched, I found a lot to like in this slim (but dense) volume of mathematical inquiry. I am not the kind of person who considers math to be their forte, but I have always been fascinated by the ways in which mathematics can and does function as a language of its own. Theory has always dazzled my mind, and yet the practical applications of such continue to elude me in frustrating ways - though, with a bit of effort (and perhaps, focus?) on my part, I can sometimes see a glimmer of math's inscrutable majesty. (Don't ask me how long it took me to shakily grasp the theory behind and the practice of nesting fractions in algebra!)

With that caveat aside, it should come as no surprise that my favorite parts of this book where the parts where Kaplan details the origins of zero, the history involved, and the differing perspectives on the number-that-is-not throughout the ages. I also loved his own philosophical musings on it, and the breadth of the quotations from a staggering array of sources, sprinkled throughout the text. I admit I had to skim past a lot of the actual math involved in some of the later chapters, but all in all, this was a book to be savored - if only for the pure joy of reading the work of someone who is clearly delighted by language in all of its forms, including the language of math itself.

Fascinating mathematical and poetic

A lovely exploration of the history of numbers and so much more. Made me look some things up and happily as the mystery was worth delving into.

Creative, informative, and intriguing. At times obtuse and extremely difficult, but mostly entertaining and educational. I highly recommend it.

This was a fascinating read, and completely interdisciplinary: Kaplan weaves together maths with philosophy, religion, literature, history, and science. He unfolds the story of maths with clever, witty writing. It is truly enlightening to envision the world before zero, but it's even more so to see how this transformative number travelled from its origin in India , through the Arab world, and then to the West. Towards the end of the book he gets a bit too mathematical--far too many equations for a lay reader like me. Otherwise this is a terrific book.

Though a bit poetic and grandiose near the end, some parts are fairly useful; the chapter entitled "[b:Slouching towards Bethlehem|424|Slouching Towards Bethlehem Essays|Joan Didion|http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/71883A3CWNL._SL75_.gif|1844]" for instance. The chapter "Bathhouses and Spiders" gave me mathematical chills. If you can make it through millennia of boring historical exposition and on through the high-concept math (sort of a fuzzy real analysis) you'll get to the philosophical bits, and that's what I enjoyed the most. If you like even your conversational math to be strict this book might infuriate you. If you failed (or never took) calculus you won't understand much of the second half of this book.

Much less mathmatics than one would think and much more histroy and philosophy. It is a rather exhaustive treatise of the subject.